The Internet Protocol (IP) developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force has become the primary underlying protocol for devices to communicate with each other. For devices to communicate with each other, a unique routing address, (e.g., an internet protocol (IP) address), is needed so that a device can be uniquely identified and packets destined to a particular device can be routed or forwarded correctly to it. The IP address of a device such as a mobile node can be configured manually in the node itself or a node can obtain the address from a server such as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server or an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) server. Once a node obtains an IP address it may need to send messages to manipulate the routing behavior corresponding to that address. Specifically a node may send an advertisement message that maps the IP address to its own MAC address or may send a binding update message to reroute packets destined to its IP address to a different acquired IP address in a different network.
A problem with current techniques for manually configuring an IP address is that unscrupulous users may claim an address that is currently being used by another node. Thus, a need exists for a method and apparatus for address creation and validation within a communication system that allows the verification that a node can indeed lay claim to a particular address.